


Tell Me Why

by WrittenFire



Series: Whumptober 2019: Mcdanno Style [12]
Category: Hawaii Five-0 (2010)
Genre: Danny Danno Williams has issues, Danny Whump, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Gunshot Wounds, Hurt Danny "Danno" Williams, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Steve McGarrett Has Issues, Which leads to, Whumptober 2019, danny pov
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-05
Updated: 2020-09-05
Packaged: 2021-03-07 03:21:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,893
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26300086
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WrittenFire/pseuds/WrittenFire
Summary: Danny is injured while spending time in New Jersey, and keeps it secret from his ohana. Drama unfolds when they discover his injury--Steve especially taking exception to not being told. A whump fic between our favorite SEAL and grumpy sunshine.
Relationships: Danny "Danno" Williams & Grace Williams, Eric "E-Train" Russo & Danny "Danno" Williams, Steve McGarrett/Danny "Danno" Williams
Series: Whumptober 2019: Mcdanno Style [12]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1503434
Comments: 15
Kudos: 231
Collections: Danny Deserves Better, H50 Writers Club Discord Challenges





	Tell Me Why

**Author's Note:**

> Had this one waiting but took my sweet time, of course;; 
> 
> Here is day 24: Secret Injury

Danny had learned early on in their partnership that Steve wasn't the best at empathizing with Danny and his injuries. His knee garnered no sympathy; at the most he received some mocking over the use of his cane (“The cane really pounds out the whole grumpy old man thing you have going, Danny.”) and a partner who refused to slow down to accommodate his hobbling. Danny didn't know if the man was that hard of feeling, or if Steve just didn't realize how much pain his partner was feeling. 

  
  


Either way, it soon became a habit for Danny to hide all the injuries he could. Despite all quips to the contrary, he really didn't get more injured with Steve than any other partner he'd had. There had been a few doozies—both undercover and not—in Danny's past, but those partners had never ragged on him like Steve did, and that hurt in ways he wasn't prepared to unbox or handle. 

  
  


So besides those injuries that the team saw happen, Danny kept mum on his hurts. Though he knew Kono and Chin would care, Danny didn't want to cause any tension with the blatant lack of acknowledgement from their fearless leader. Every time he cared for Steve after he was injured and the man was ungrateful in return, Danny felt a little more set adrift from his partner. 

  
  


When his old Chief called him back to New Jersey to attend trial for one of his last cases before he left, Danny was relieved for the chance to get away and  _ breathe.  _ The opportunity to get away from his troubles and connect with old friends and get to see his family after a long two years was the best thing to happen to Danny since Rachel finally let him have more time with his Monkey. 

  
  


Telling Steve almost led to an argument, but there was no way the SEAL could keep him here. The closer it came to his departure, the giddier he became, until he was practically radiating sunshine with the force of his smile. Danny knew that his team was a little off balance, not only from how happy he was, but also how he was expressing it. But he couldn't find it in himself to care, not when he would soon be back in the loving embrace of his hometown. 

  
  


Saying goodbye to his Monkey was rough, but his reassurances that he’d see her soon and would bring back some cookies from her grandma set her at ease. She enthusiastically waved him goodbye, holding on tight to her mother’s hand; Danny waved back, and the sight of her smiling face, and the smiling faces he would see when he landed were what got him through the flight. 

  
  


The instant he landed and saw his parents, Danny knew that this trip was just what he needed; and in so many ways, he was right. Spending time with his family, slotting back into their familiar back and forth, the easy exchange of affectionate touch healed a part of him Danny hadn't been aware was broken. Even visiting his old precinct went well—Danny caught up with old co-workers and friends, and it felt like he had never left. 

  
  


When the trial was over and he still had a few leisure days left to spend, Danny even joined in on a case that was eerily similar to one he'd solved years before. The resulting injury that occurred was the one dim part of his otherwise happy trip. 

  
  


His Ma fussed over him for the rest of his visit, sending him back on the plane with extra bags of goodies for him and Grace to share. Leaving his parents behind at the airport once again was hard, but knowing that his Monkey would be waiting for him upon arrival eased the sting. For Danny, there was nothing he wouldn't do for his daughter, even if it meant he followed her around the globe while Rachel and Stan took jobs everywhere but where Danny lived. His daughter was his pride and joy, and she'd owned his heart since the first moment Danny held her in his arms. 

  
  


Finding Grace upon landing, Danny was glad that the family had convinced him to tell Grace he was hurt beforehand, because otherwise she would have run straight into his arms and right into his injury. As it was she was able to skid to a stop before reaching him, gently burrowing into her dad's side while her cousin lagged behind her. Eric had come to pick Danny up from the airport, wanting to save his aunt and uncle another awkward car ride. Though the two had been divorced for years and Rachel had since remarried, for the formative years of Eric's life the two had been together and thus Rachel would forever be an aunt to him. 

  
  


Eric waited until Danny reached an arm out in invitation to join them, before letting his arms grip his uncle and cousin tight, the rest of his body angled away (something Danny appreciated since Eric was on his injured side). Danny soaked in the love that seeped through the hug; despite how he teased and picked on his nephew he really was glad to have more family on the island. The kid was a handful, no denying that, but he had definitely matured since arriving and Danny was glad to be a part of that process, proud of the man his nephew was becoming. Danny would undoubtedly be doing his level best to shoo him out of his apartment as much as he could this week—he already knew that Eric and Grace would be treating him with kid gloves per his mother and sisters' orders. 

  
  


It wasn't needed still, but Danny knew he had little choice but to accept it. The women in his family were a force to be reckoned with, and resigning yourself to their mercies was more often than not the easiest option you had. 

  
  


The car ride back to his apartment was filled with Grace and Eric's chatter, the two catching Danny up with everything that had happened during the week he was gone. Once they arrived and had ordered food, it was Danny's turn to share the news of their Jersey relatives, leaving his favorite kids in stitches over the antics of their family. Their laughter was a balm to his soul, a treasure he never wanted to lose. As he fell asleep that night, Grace lying in bed beside him and holding on tightly to his hand, Danny was grateful once again for the small break he'd had from the island, even with the work he'd had to do while on it. 

  
  


\--

  
  


Going back to work after a weekend spent convalescing with his family sucked more than Danny thought it would. It was nice to be back to being productive, don’t get him wrong, and getting to see his team was a treat, but Danny wasn’t ready to go back to hiding his injuries. Being around people who didn’t treat him like his injuries were “ _ Just a boo boo, Danno, _ ” was ridiculously refreshing. 

  
  


In an effort to stave off the enthusiastic hugs and back slaps he was sure to get, Danny arrived at work early, bringing his cup of coffee and malasada back to his office with him and sitting down to get a head start on his paperwork. The plan worked in his favor; when the rest of his team arrived he was deep in his work, and so they came to him and Danny was left in control. Kono bent down to hug him, Chin slapped his back fondly and Steve stood before his desk and teased him over gaining a tan while off the island. They started to ask him about the trial and his stay with his family; Danny filled them in happily, swiping through his phone to show off pictures he'd taken with the family. Everything was going great, Kono gently teasing him over his sunny disposition when they got the call about a case that needed their expertise. 

  
  


If Steve had just been able to wait for backup  _ like Danny suggested,  _ Danny could have stayed in his happy glow. But like the Neanderthal that he was, Steve went tearing in without radioing it, leaving Danny to do so before following the other man in. The case had dragged on for days, each clue and breakthrough leading them to a dead end, and Danny understood why Steve was so eager to charge in and get things taken care of, but backup was called in and  _ waited for  _ with good reason. 

  
  


One of those being that more often than not, shit would hit the fan if you didn't wait. 

  
  


By the time backup had arrived things had already devolved into chaos, and in the kerfuffle that followed Danny missed his stitches ripping open, turning what should have been a simple tackle of a perp into a growing stain of blood on the side of one of his favorite shirts. Once every suspect had been cuffed and the ambulance had pulled up to the scene—no doubt called once it hit the airwaves that Five-0 was on the scene—Danny noticed the pain immediately, a wave of it that had him stumbling into Chin who was standing before him. Feeling Chin stiffen beneath him, Danny was glad the other man's instinct wasn't to throw him off, as that would have hurt like a motherfucker in his current condition. 

  
  


As it was, having to pull back and steady himself on his own two feet while Chin turned around to face him was unpleasant enough. With his luck, Danny figured the re-injury was probably worse than the original wound, thanks to the force of the tackle. 

  
  


"You ok, brah?" Chin began, eyes going wide when he saw the rapidly growing blood stain. “ _ Steve! _ ” Chin yelled and reached out for Danny, grabbing hold of one of his arms while he shoved aside Danny’s vest to get to the shirt underneath. Steve came rushing at them, Kono just a second behind him. 

  
  


“What happened? Chin? Danny!” Steve exclaimed, words so rushed they all but tumbled over themselves. “You were wearing your vest! How did this happen?” he demanded and ducked under Danny’s arm, stooping down to his height and pressing down on his wound with his other hand, following after Kono and Chin as they led the way to an ambulance. 

  
  


“Relax, Steve,” Danny grumbled, wriggling out of Steve’s hold the moment they were close to the ambulance and finishing the walk under his own steam. He ignored Steve’s protests behind him, accepting the EMT’s help into the bus and sitting at the edge, too tired to get in the way of letting him do his job. “I had stitches. I felt them tear open,” Danny informed Nathan—the EMT—wincing down at his reopened injury.

  
  


“What was the original injury?” Nathan asked, taking Danny’s cue and ignoring the rest of the team that was loudly proclaiming their displeasure behind them. 

“I was shot while in Jersey.” The silence that fell was loud in its suddenness. “I got lucky; the angle of the shot meant the bullet just grazed through me. Eric said it “shaved those layers right outta ya, Uncle D.”” He and Nathan shared an eye roll; Nathan was friends with his nephew, and well accustomed to the brat. 

“Well it looks like your stitches popping took a few more layers with them,” Nathan announced, sealing the wound with gauze. “We’ll take you in to get stitched up.” 

Danny sighed. “Can’t you just do them here?” He pleaded, gratefully letting Nathan help him up and onto a seat. 

“Not after the last time, no. Dr. Malia is fierce.” Nathan grinned, sharing the smile with Chin. “You’ll just have to suffer through my company.” He turned to the rest of the team and looked them over. “Anyone else have any injuries I should be worrying about?” When no one replied in the positive he nodded, trusting them to have spoken up if they were injured. “Alright, then we’re going to be taking off.” When Nathan was sure that no one would raise an objection he reached for the doors, closing them on Steve’s stormy face. As they drove off to the hospital, he turned to Danny. “I think you’re in trouble when you get home.” 

  
  


Danny sighed, but didn’t argue. He knew his friends well enough to have seen the promises of questions and raised voices in his future. Danny just hoped that Chin would be the one to pick him up from the hospital—the man had the perfect reason for it, anyways. And the car ride back with Chin’s zen attitude would provide Danny with the much needed time to figure out what he wanted to say to Steve.

  
  


_ Where was his easy day back? _

  
  


\--

  
  


Danny wasn’t surprised to see Steve waiting for him in the hospital lobby when Malia had finally decided she was done with him. The lecture he’d received from his friend went as expected; Malia scolded Danny for being out in the field with fresh stitches, expressed concern over him flying back so soon when she knew he was still in pain, and demanding he stay at home for a few extra days so that he could start the healing process all over again.

  
  


Danny would be stuck on desk duty until Malia decided that he was fully healed, but Danny was okay with that. It was nice to have someone he wasn’t related to worry so much about an injury—refreshing, even. Malia sent him off with a prescription and a kiss to Danny’s cheek, extracting a firm promise to keep her updated on how he was doing until they met again to remove his stitches.

  
  


When he arrived in the lobby in a spare scrub shirt and his ruined shirt in a bag, Steve was pacing in tight circles before the information desk. No doubt he had been told to wait there for Danny; he wondered briefly how long Steve had been pacing. Judging by the irritable tick in the nurse’s brow, it was more than long enough. The moment Steve saw Danny he stilled, storm clouds brewing as he grabbed onto Danny’s arms, asking with a terse nod if he was free to go. Danny said yes and let himself be dragged—gently—away, shooting the nurse a reassuring smile over his shoulder as he went. 

  
  


He followed Steve out and to the car, grateful for once that Steve had no sense of personal space when it came to the Camaro—the truck would have been too difficult to get in and out of comfortably given his current state. It was a prolonged, heavy silence from the hospital to the car, a silence that continued past dropping off Danny’s prescription. It was like being caught in the eye of a storm, and Danny was just waiting for the moment of the first strike.

  
  


That moment came when they’d arrived at Steve’s house and parked in the driveway. Danny had been teetering on if he wanted to open up the conversation by telling Steve that they were in the wrong place and to take him home, when Steve turned to him and stared intensely at him. “Inside, Danny.” 

  
  


The second that Danny took to follow Steve’s demand must have been too long, because the other man reached over and unbuckled his seat belt and opened his door for him, getting out of the driver's seat with more aggression than Danny had ever witnessed from his partner before. And yet, despite the obvious frustration and anger Steve was feeling, his touch was gentle, hands gripping softly as they helped him out of the passenger seat, hand pressing lightly to the small of his back as he guided Danny up the front porch and through the door, once it had been unlocked.

  
  


Danny let himself be directed to the couch, easing down onto the cushion he had long ago started to think of as his own, while Steve continued on to the kitchen. He had some idea of what the man was doing, and was proven right when Steve came back with a glass of water in hand, Danny’s bottle of pain pills held in the other. 

  
  


When Steve went to hand him two, Danny denied him. Before Steve could open his mouth—no doubt to yell—Danny cut him off. “If we’re going to be having a conversation like I assume we are, I should wait on those.” He did accept the glass from him, though. “The medication Malia gave me is still in my system, I’ll be fine for another hour or so.”

  
  


Steve nodded tersely and set the bottle of medication on the coffee table. Danny watched as he paced before him, waiting patiently for Steve to find the words he wanted to say. He knew that the upcoming conversation wouldn't be pleasant, and so was content to wait the other man out. After what simultaneously felt like too long and yet not long enough, Steve came to a stop, whirling around to face Danny, and with arms crossed over his chest and face set in stone, Steve began the conversation. 

  
  


“What the hell, Danny?” 

  
Danny raised a brow in question. “You’re gonna have to be more specific than that, Steve.”

  
  


Steve huffed. “Don’t be a smartass, you know exactly what I’m talking about. How could you not tell us—tell  _ me _ —that you were shot while in Jersey? Why the hell would you hide an injury from us?” he demanded.

  
  


Danny sighed, weary down to his bones. “Because that’s what I always do, Steve.” Staring at his hands as he was, Danny missed the impact those words had on his friend. “It’s not a big deal, babe.”

  
  


“ _ Not a big deal? _ ” The force of Steve’s yell startled Danny, drawing his gaze up to the reddening, irate face of a Navy SEAL. “ _ How the fuck is you being injured— _ **_being shot_ ** _ —not a big deal? _ ” 

  
  


“I don’t know, Steven, maybe because it never is!” Danny stood with a shout, wincing when the move sent a twinge through his wound.

  
  


“Fucks sake, Danny, sit down!” Steve scolded, rushing around the coffee table and gently pressing Danny back down to the couch. He waited until he was sure that Danny was settled comfortably before sitting on the coffee table, hands grasping his knees tight, leaning in towards Danny. "I don't understand, Danny," Steve said softly. "Why do you think you getting hurt is never a big deal?"

  
  


Danny fought the urge to fidget under the intensity of Steve's confused stare. The open concern on his face had Danny's stomach in knots. "I'm very perceptive, Steve, it's part of why I'm such a good detective. I noticed very quickly that any injury or strain on my part brought about teasing and disinterest on yours." 

  
  


Steve's face crumpled at the words and Danny fought the urge to wave it off so that Steve’s face looked less sad, but he wouldn't take back what he said, not when the words were long overdue. He’d let this situation go on for too long, and now a small feeling of being looked down upon had grown into an at times overwhelming wave of unsettling discontent. Danny loved Steve, and was sure that Steve loved him back, but this problem threw shadows onto that and Danny was well aware of what could happen to a relationship because of it. 

  
  


All he needed to do was look at his disastrous marriage to, and divorce from, Rachel to know that—it was the perfect example. 

  
  


“You can’t deny it, babe,” Danny uttered softly. “When I reinjured my ACL and was back on a cane and doing physical therapy, you mocked me and my ‘boo-boo’. And you never stopped, even when it was a small injury.” The look of utter despair was breaking his heart—but there was no turning back now. “Eventually, I learned to keep mum about it because what was the point? No one likes to hear their injuries belittled...especially when it comes from someone you love.”

  
  


At those words Steve  _ broke _ . “ _ Danny. _ ” Steve reached out, hands outstretched to touch, to soothe—and he withdrew, folding in on himself instead. “I’m sorry, I swear I didn’t—I never meant for that—.” He cut himself off, stumbling over how to say what he needed to say. At the hitch in his breathing Danny reached out himself and grabbed Steve’s hands, unsurprised with the strength with which the other man latched onto the touch. 

  
  


“I hate seeing you in pain,” Steve whispered, staring down at their joined hands. “If I can just...believe that it’s not serious, that you’re okay...it's easier.” 

  
  


The admittance, on the other hand, did surprise him. “Steven. You know that doesn’t mean that I’m not injured, right?” He tugged on their hands, just slightly, bringing Steve’s attention back to his face. “Your effort to make  _ my _ injuries easier on  _ you _ just hurt me more. And that’s not okay, babe.”

  
  


Steve took a shuddering breath. “I’m sorry, Danny.” 

  
  


Danny took him in, seeing how hard his words were affecting the other man. He could see that he truly meant that apology, and while it helped it wasn’t enough. “I appreciate that you are, babe.” He made sure that he had Steve’s full attention before continuing. “But if something doesn’t change…” Danny sighed. “There’s only so long you can feel unwanted, and unimportant, before you start to believe that’s true.”

  
  


“You’ve never been unimportant, I swear,” Steve vows; he untangled their hands to grip Danny’s face gently in his palms, leaning forward to gently press their foreheads together. “I won’t do it again, I promise. I won’t minimize your pain. But Danny, I need you to  _ tell me  _ if I make you feel awful. Please.” He pulled back so that Danny could see his nervous, unsure smile. “You know the Army trained those pesky normal emotional reactions out of me.” 

  
  


Between the smile and repeat of an oft used phrase of his, Danny shakily laughed, a long held tension finally starting to release. He turned into Steve’s touch, fingers holding on to the other man's wrists. “As long as you promise to listen when I do.”

  
  


Steve gave a relieved smile. “I promise, Danny.” And in an unexpected move Steve kissed Danny’s forehead, lips a soft whisper against his skin. 

  
  


There was still a lot they had to discuss, issues to be resolved and emotions to be shared. Danny would be due another pill soon, and a ride home to Grace and Eric before long. Between his renewal of his injury and Steve finally being in the know, Danny knew the two would have a  _ lot  _ to say to them both. But as Steve moved to sit beside him, one arm draping around Danny’s shoulder and drawing him close, the other reaching out to once again hold his own, Danny was content. 

  
  


For he knew that though there was work to be done, that someday, they would get to the place where the trust was built up once again, and those soft shared “I love you’s” could be turned into something  _ grand. _

**Author's Note:**

> This is the longest thing I've written in a while, and the longest mcdanno fic I've done so far! Woo! Let me know what you think? :)
> 
> also the title came about because of a discussion in my discord group; stole it from "I Want It That Way" by the Backstreet Boys. Excuse me while I tiredly giggle over it


End file.
